Making front upright safer

[Cliff Beer]

Casey, can you tell if the ball joints on your CAV bind with suspension movement? I have mono#8 and there seems to be lots of range of movement for the ball joint w/o binding.

I think what Jean is saying above is that the flaw is the block bolts rather than the block or ball joint or upright or other suspension element. Specifically, the use of below-grade bolts (8.8 or below) and short bolts creates an issue, the fix being to use 12.9 or better and lock tite those babies down good!

 

[Jean]

Hi Guys
Just to confirm: during testing carried out by a local university, the upright failed under excessive force, at it's weakest point, the balljoint. This is the same balljoint as used on a very popular vehicle manufacturer.
I honestly believe that if the assembly is correct, and the correct bolts are used, you will not have any failures.

Jean Fourie

 

[Pat]

I think Jean's is the point I was trying to make with my previous post. The very early cars had wrong hardware/assembly and had problems. Fix that and unless the loose nut behind the wheel does something silly, it's pretty safe and probably much safer than the family minivan.

When testing, I understand they take the part to the point of failure. Then if that is within with the full operational envelope of the part, you have reasonable assurance the part is safe. Jean's point is that independient testing indicates the ball joint fails before the upright and well beyond the operational envelope of the car.

Like Cliff, I have never seen bind on my front end and wonder of Casey has some "user engineering" that may be affecting his car.

I've got almost 5K miles and 20 plus track days on my car and simply have not had the problems that seem to be generating all the hysteria.

 

[Pat Buckley]

Well stated, Veek.

Although it is winter up here..........

 

[Casey]

I am going by what I have been told. That is a scary scenario.

I have yet to see if there actually will be an issue with the ball joint having to small of a range of motion.

I have yet to take it apart to see what hardware is used. It is Ohio and the car is not in my garage now.

Do you all suggest using the wicked high grade bolts and threading them into the aluminum block or should I drill through and put the bolts all the way through? If I do that it is easier to see if they are loosening.

Casey

 

[Casey]

I notice you are talking of putting 12.9 grade bolts in.

Are our uprights already using metric fasteners or will they need to be retapped?

Casey